Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Rice quota: UDF blames government

Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday contested Food Minister C. Divakaran’s claim that the Centre had cut the State’s ration rice allocation for the APL category and asserted that the government was responsible for the crisis.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Chandy and Mr. Chennithala said that the ration quota had been cut owing to the gross negligence of the State government. It had violated a memorandum of understanding signed with the Centre on decentralised procurement (DCP) of rice, under which it was required to deliver 1,68,000 tonnes to the Central pool.

The State government had diverted 83,000 tonnes of rice, procured under the scheme for distribution to APL categories at Rs.8.90 a kg, to the Maveli stores to be sold at Rs.16 a kg. They alleged that the Minister was distorting facts to provide steam to the Left parties’ anti-Centre agitation.

“We appeal to the Central government not to punish the State for the State government’s lapses during the peak Onam season,” they said.

The two leaders said that the Centre had informed the State on July 2 about its rice procurement plan and asked it to provide the details of procurement.

The government failed to respond to this and the Centre wrote to the State again on July 24 informing it to lift the APL allocation from the stock of rice available with the State government as a DCP State for the Central pool from August to December.

Mr. Chennithala said that the Food and Civil Supplies Department had cheated the people by diverting rice for distribution at a higher rate.

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